Two big names are coming together to work on a brand-new show for FOX. Queen Latifah and Empire creator Lee Daniels are putting together a musical series that is set to star Queen alongside three new faces, who were chosen after open auditions: Jude Demorest (Dallas), Ryan Destiny (Low Winter Sun) and Brittany O'Grady (The Messengers). The show will be co-created and co-written by Tom Donaghy and directed by Daniels.
Daniels is on a role after the major success of Empire, which just finished its second season. But this success comes with a price sometimes, as Daniels is being sued by SAG-AFTRA, just a month after the same organization honored him. According to Deadline Hollywood, the union wants a judge to enforce a 2011 arbitration ruling over nearly $340,000 in unpaid contributions and residuals from Daniels' directorial feature debut, Shadowboxer.
Daniels' new show is set in Atlanta, and the hip-hop mogul is set to play the owner of a beauty salon who looks out for three girls coming together to form a musical girl group.
According to Deadline Hollywood, "...the pilot follows three young women (Demorest, Destiny, O'Grady), who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the music industry, and the choices with which they're faced along the way. Latifah anchors the cast as Carlotta, the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon, with an amazing voice, who will become a surrogate mother to the three girls-even though she doesn't approve of their musical dreams."
Latifah is not keeping still these days. Just last week she starred as the Wiz in NBC's live reboot of The Wiz with musical and acting powerhouses such as David Alan Grier, Ne-Yo, Mary J. Blige and Uzo Aduba. And a few months ago, she starred in the Emmy-winning HBO movie Bessie.
The pilot for the potential series, which is as of yet untitled, begins shooting in Atlanta this month.
Watch Latifah's Bessie in action below:
